Gamecock - An Introduction to this New Publisher

Gamasutra has an interesting and entertaining interview with the founders of new game publisher Gamecock; the publishers of recently revealed new RPG Hero. Here's a couple of brief excerpts:

This week, Gathering of Developers' former CEO Mike Wilson and ex-president Harry Miller announced the formation of a new independent game publisher named Gamecock Media Group, with seemingly similar goals - promoting the rights and interests of game developers making original IP.

Miller continued: “When we speak of new IP, traditionally the best stuff has come from independent developers, but it’s incredibly difficult for an independent developer to convince a publisher to sign their new IP, since the commercial success of the game is unpredictable. The risk that the game will do well enough to meet the required margins of the publisher is really high.”

“Those developers, who do get to the negotiating table, find that the agreement includes strings which require that the developer hand over their rights to the IP, and/or agree to sell the IP or the company for a predetermined price. These added assets help the publisher offset their risk with value (real or perceived) of the acquired IP,” he added.

One more snippet I just can't resist:

One of the more interesting facets of the Gamecock unveiling was that rather than sticking with PC-centric offerings the company revealed that it had signed developers for projects across all platforms, including not only the PC, but next-gen consoles and handhelds as well.